Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-11-17
PIGS For The FARM.
Diversified Feeding the Secret OF Success In
Pork-Productfon.

aOle, anu dtGnOuSh IL ID iAoAOuiouS dO-
surdity, yet it is truth that there are
fashions in pork. Years ago the public
wanted clear mess, and pieces eight
inches thick of clear fat with a mere
shadow of lean adjoining the bones
was considered the most desirable
thing in pork. Now this extreme fat is
unpopular and thin meat with alter
nate streaks of lean and fat is fashiona-
BILE. AS pork is made from pigs.
necessarily the fashion has changed in
regard to pigs, and the heavy, gross,
fat-making breeds are in disfavor
This fashion, curiously enough. came
to us from England. where hitherto the
public taste has demanded extremely
fat meat, mutton chops with ''three
fingers of fat" sirloins with six or eight
inches of fat on the under side, and
bacon with the merest streaks of lean
in six inches of fat. To furnish this fat
meat enormous sheep reaching a ma
ture weight CT 800 to nearly 400 pounds;
two-year-old beef. ..baby beef" as it
was called, weighing 1900 to 1000
pounds, and having exceedingly soft,
fabby flesh, and fat strongly tasting of
the oil cakes of which it was made. and
the great Yorkshire and Cheshire
swine. which could be could be fed up
to 700 or 800 pounds at three years old.
And in servile habit of initiating
English ways and fashions, American
breeders tried to make us feed upon
fat, but failed in the attempt. And now
the Jersey red, the Poland China and
the big Yorkshire swine are not popu-
lar. and the Berkshire and other
smaller kinds whose meat is half lean
mixed in alternate layers with the
fat. and which are not so highly fed
and are given more time to mature
have taken the place in public estima-
ton, formerly held by the larger breeds.
OF course, those whose business is to
supply the public with meat must cater
to the public tastes and conform to
their wishes Hence. breeders and
feeders need to study the characters of
the best breeds that are most suitable
for their purpose, and not only this.
but especially the best methods of feed
ial of which fat alone is made, some
other food must be used to make lean
meat.
The Berkshire is the best bacon hog
in existence. 1t has been largely used
in refining the grossness of the Poland
China, and its jet black coat is now
worn by this useful breed in place of
the former spotted one. The blue
black or slaty Neapolitan has been used
to refine the Berkshire, but we believe
this shade in the latter indicates weak
ness of constitution, although it gives
the thin lean meat, and we prefer the
glossy black rather coarse hair than the
slaty blue thin spare coat of the Neap-
olitan.
The black breeds are certainly the
most desirable pigs, because they with
stand the scorching sun of our hot
summers, and they alone escape sun
scald in the South. OF the white
breeds the large Yorkshire. when mod
erately fed and grazed in the summers,
the Cheshires and the Chester Whites
are excellent for making good meat.
The small breeds are, we think, too
much given to fat, and are not so prof
liable as the larger kinds. The small
Yorkshires have been fed for fat
so long during the period of
their so-called improvement that
they are nothing if not a
ball of fat in which the short. up
turned snout is so buried us to be
nearly invisible. These short-necked
pigs, without jowl worthy of speak
ing of. are clearly not profitable under
the present fashion, and need to be
in precisely the reverse of
the manner prevailing hitherto with
their breeders.
But the feeding, after all, makes the
pig, and our prevailing mode of feed
ing must be changed from corn to
grass largely and other grains than
that too highly carbonaceous food.
Bran, oatmeal, mangels, and even
clover hay, all heterogeneous and flesh
foods, must be used to make
flesh, and corn should be reduced TO
One-fourth its present quantity 1t is
a curious fact that the substitution of
cottonseed oil for lard has had much
to do with the recent change in the de-
mand for pork and the desire for thin
ner meat than heretofore. Lard hogs
are certainly at present, and possibly
forever. displaced by the cottonseed oil
press; hence the big pigs of GOO or 700
pounds, so per cent. of which went to
the lard kettles, are now useless. Corn
hereafter will probably be less used for
making pork, and this will lead to the
very desirable result of avoiding much
of the disease which has hitherto pre-
vailed among the herds. With more
diversified feeding and more nitrogen
in proportion to the carbon of the
food the feeding will be more healthful
and profitable, and special crops. of
which clover. mangels, and beets or
turnips will be grown for this use, to